Booked, Busy and Anxious: Why Our Work Isn’t What’s Most Important to God
When life gets busy, what’s the first thing to go?
When new things start coming into fruition, what typically gets cast aside?
When unexpected opportunities come or we experience a shift in life’s pace as we adjust to something new, we often don’t realize that our yes in one area means a no in another.
The yes of a new job or work schedule may likely require a no to hangouts with friends.
The yes of welcoming a new baby may require a no to lengthy sleep.
The yes of starting a new semester may mean saying no to lax + leisure as usual.
Every time something (or someone) new enters our lives, the drawing board of our heart measures the new up against the old and reorders it all.
But as we’re internally recalibrating, we often fail to evaluate if the things we’re prioritizing are actually for our best + highest good.
TUNE IN TO OUR DISCUSSION + PRAYER SESSION ABOUT HOW God Cares More about Our Being Than Our Doing.
Today’s Meditation
Exodus 3:1-6 & Luke 10:38-42
We’re all booked ‘n busy.
From the small biz boss and the nine-to-fiver to the college girlies and the stay-at-home mamas, most of us have a full plate—with little room to spare for dessert.
If you’re like me, your schedule is stuffed and you’re “too busy,” or find yourself constantly feeling like you’re running out of time.
If this is you, I can almost bet that there’s just one thing, in all of your doing, that you’ve neglected, the one thing that’s usually the first thing to go when life ramps up: your devotion to God.
You may be thinking, Well a lot of what I’m doing is for God.
I hear you, because I’ve been saying this too. And I admit: I’ve been convinced my busyness in trying to steward all God has entrusted to me is holy and good.
But as God led me to examine this moment Jesus had with Mary + Martha, I’m now pretty sure I’ve had it all wrong.
When we recall Moses’ God-encounter and stack it up alongside these sisters, we can clearly see what matters most to God isn’t our tasks + to-do’s.
Our usefulness & significance to God isn’t found in our work or efforts.
I don’t know if it’s just an American church clichè, but somewhere along the way, many of us have been living from this idea that God wants to use us.
While I agree that God has good, hope-filled plans for each of us that he cooked up long before we got here (Jeremiah 29:11), I wonder if we’ve lost sight of what matters to him most.
When we look at Jesus’ visit with Mary and Martha, Jesus didn’t take notice of Martha’s elaborate efforts to serve, but in Mary’s extravagant focus upon him.
Martha was busy with “much serving,” so much so that it made her anxious, overwhelmed and agitate. All she deemed as good work was thought by Jesus to be excessive and even unnecessary in light of what he actually desired.
I imagine Martha wasn’t the lazy type, but was a roll-up-her-sleeves kinda girl who knew how to GET. ISH. DONE. She could read the room and the needs of others in it, and was always ready to take initiative to handle whatever needed to get done.
But what she was unaware of was her neglect of the Guest of Honor in the midst of her good service to everyone else. Mary, her sister, chose the “better portion” as she decided to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to his teaching.
Friend, what matters most to Jesus is our knowing him and being deeply connected with him, not us being “used” by him.
God doesn’t exactly need our efforts to accomplish anything. Rather, it’s from our intimacy with him that all we do should flow from.
Our devotion to God shouldn’t be the first thing we shelve when life gets busy, but the one thing we cling to as the cup from which our works of love and service pour out of.
As you read + meditate on these verses I want you to ask yourself:
We make space for what we treasure. What does your typical schedule & daily habits say about how much you treasure your connection with God?
If Jesus asked you to lay down your “good work,” would you do so quickly & gladly? If not, do you believe that what you’d hold onto is able to provide something that God can’t?
How do you feel about God caring more about being with you than whatever you attempt to do for him?
How can you dedicate designated time to pursuing God and community that will help you grow in your faith?
Where our treasure is, there our heart will be. And so will our devotion and time commitments.
I pray you find rest and joy in the truth that you matter to God not for what you can do for him.
I hope you remember that Jesus’ work on the cross is a finished work you cannot add to, and that his grace is a free gift you cannot earn.
Missed out on a Bible meditation from this fast? Catch up below!
When we empty ourselves upon God, we can be filled to the full with life.